“Deep breaths?” Carter echoed, chuckling in spite of himself. “I guess you must know how good you look, seeing how you’re accusing me of hyperventilating.”
If he wasn’t breathing hard before, he certainly was after Aoife peeled her shirt from her lithe frame and tossed it aside, leaving her bare beyond the lace bra adorning her gentle curves. Dizzily, he recalled how in college, some of his friends had jeered that women who wore black lingerie always wanted to put out. Lucky him, he supposed, that he was presently the one on the receiving end.
Her hand came up to rest on his cheek, and on instinct, Carter curled his fingers around her wrist, gently anchoring her close. He nuzzled into her palm and smiled. But before he could think to make a stupid quip, and thus, completely ruin the mood, Aoife dragged his mouth back into hers and he melted into her touch, his one hand falling to her waist while the other tangled through her hair, allowing him to drink of her with a fierce intensity. Aoife broke apart long enough to smear her lips up toward his cheek, his jaw, and he bit back a groan as a burst of heat flooded hotly through his lap.
“You can start getting naked now, Carter.”
He laughed, the sound soft and husky. Watching her pull away to disrobe, he hesitated a moment, then set to work on unfastening the row of buttons along his Oxford. “Now I wish I’d worn a pullover,” he quipped, flashing her a crooked smile. “I’m tempted to just rip the damn thing right off and buy a new one.”
As if proving that this would be a good idea, Carter’s fingers briefly fumbled along the remaining buttons, causing him to curse while Aoife tended to her jeans. Her question earned her a laugh, and finally shrugging out of his shirt and blazer, he tossed them both onto the floor, and clicked open his belt. “What’s wrong with being compared to a bike?” he asked, feigning innocence. “It just means you’re fun to ride.”
Unzipping his slacks, he lowered them over his hips before kicking them and his shoes off to the side, his limbs still a touch jittery as he blinked back at Aoife with a growing pink in his cheeks. He felt…strange being so open and vulnerable. Although he’d been stabbed in the back, he presently bore scars from his laparotomy, colostomy, and central line all along his torso. They were faded, but still there, ugly and an in memoriam to all he had lost. And given how Aoife worked in the medical field, he knew she would recognize what they were.
“So, uh…” He cleared his throat. “How do you want me?”
God, this was ridiculous. In the past, Carter had just met all his partners with feverish intensity, drowning himself in their touch until he felt whole, normal, but that had been before literal parts of him were torn from his body. He wasn’t so sure how he would react to close contact — not since the last time someone had gotten this close, there’d been a literal knife in his back — but somehow…somehow, he was glad it was Aoife. She was a comfort. Soothing, even, and despite his skin prickling beneath her appraisal, he didn’t sense any disgust nor revulsion from her even with her eyes on him.